


3-2-1 Penguins! The First Series: Part 1

by katrinahood



Series: 3-2-1 Penguins! The First Series [1]
Category: 3-2-1 Penguins! (Cartoon)
Genre: first two chapters are cringe because i wrote them when i was a teen sorry about that, the oc character tags are more for me than they are for you
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-02
Updated: 2020-12-02
Packaged: 2021-03-10 00:00:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 19,571
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27834928
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/katrinahood/pseuds/katrinahood
Summary: Part one out of the three series of adventures that Jason, Michelle, Samantha, and the Rockhopper crew go on.
Series: 3-2-1 Penguins! The First Series [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2037379





	1. The Lehakian King of Winter: Part One

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer, the first two chapters are cringe because I wrote them when I was a teen. I only published them here because I described the physical appearances of three of my OCs in them and I don't feel like writing them again. Consider the first two chapters some sort of "pilot" where early installment weirdness abounds.

A ten-year-old girl with black hair, a bob-like haircut, medium red sandals, a light red t-shirt, and dark red shorts slowly opened a book about the history of an ancient alliance of planets located far away from the planet Earth.

"A long time ago, in the vast space of the Federation League of Planets, there were regal twin Lehakian siblings who co-ruled one area of Lehakia, and partook in all of the Federation's discussions. When outside forces threatened the very foundation of the Federation, the younger led her army forces during the spring and summer, and the elder led his during the fall and winter. The two siblings were awarded by having holidays dedicated to them, the Summer and Winter Solstice. But as time progressed, the elder brother's resentment grew slowly. The aliens appreciated what his younger sister did for them while taking his accomplishments for granted. One fateful day, the elder Lehakian refused to attend the Winter Solstice Festival. The younger sister tried to reason with him, but the envy in the elder one's heart had only aided in his transformation into an evil Lehakian of winter: Frostbite Ice. He swore that he would plunge the galaxy in an eternal ice age. Reluctantly, the younger sister harnessed the most powerful artifacts known to aliens: the Elements of the Nine Cosmos Keepers. Using the power of the Elements of the Nine Cosmos Keepers, she defeated her elder brother, and banished him permanently in the continent of Antarctica on Earth. The younger sister took on the responsibilities of her brother."

"...and harmony has been maintained in the Federation for years since," the girl read, "Hmm...the Elements of the Nine Cosmos Keepers. I know I've heard of those before, but where?"

"Samantha, what are the Elements of the Nine Cosmos Keepers?" asked Jason.

"The Elements of the Nine Cosmos Keepers are the most powerful artifacts known to aliens," answered Samantha.

Just then, Grandmum went out from the kitchen and asked two of her grandkids, "Have either of you seen Samantha anywhere?"

"She's right here," answered Michelle as she pointed to where Samantha was.

"Samantha? I thought you would be reading a letter from one of your friends," Grandmum told Samantha.

"No, I don't have any friends who send me letters," replied Samantha.

"Why didn't you make some friends?" asked Grandmum.

"Well, I don't want to risk being disappointed if they ever abandon me," answered Samantha.

"Oh, you know what the Good Book says about friendship, don't you?" asked Grandmum.

"Uh...not really," replied Samantha.

" 'One who has many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother, ' "

"Hold on, let me guess what that means," Samantha said before Grandmum could explain the meaning. She pondered hard about what that verse meant until she spoke up, "Okay, forget it."

"That means even if you have many friends who might abandon you, there will always be that one friend who will stick closer to you than a brother," explained Grandmum.

"I wouldn't make any friends even if the fate of a vast area in space would not depend on me doing so!" Samantha retorted.

"I wouldn't be so sure about that," replied Grandmum, "Wash up, dearies, lunch will be ready soon." She went back into the kitchen to prepare lunch.

"What do you think she meant by that, Samantha?" asked Jason.

"I don't know, and I couldn't care less!" Samantha snapped as she whacked the table the Penguins' spaceship was on with her fist. Her doing so caused the ship to fall off the table and hover above it. The lid of the ship opened to show Captain Zidgel looking up at the three kids.

"Come on, cadets, you don't want to be late!" he told them.

"Why? Is there another planet to save?" asked Michelle.

"Nope, there's an event coming up in E.T. town," answered Zidgel.

"What kind of event is coming up?" asked Jason.

"We'll explain on the way," answered Fidgel. He grabbed the galeezel and fired it at Jason. The galeezel's claw wrapped around Jason and Fidgel wound the claw back in order to bring Jason aboard the Rockhopper. He proceeded to do the same thing with Michelle. Samantha took off her sandals and kicked them aside before the galeezel claw wrapped around her and pulled her aboard. Once she was aboard, Samantha pressed a button on a contraption located on her left wrist. Some of her human features pixelated away, revealing a yellowish-orange beak, three-fingered hands, no visible ears, flippers, and lighter skin patterned similar to a penguin's black and white feathers.

"Bonzaiiiiiii!" Midgel yelled out the catchphrase he yelled whenever he flew the ship out of Grandmum's cottage. He pushed his flipper to the gas pedal and they all flew out of of Grandmum's cottage and into space to go to E.T. town.

* * *

In the U.F.P.S. Rockhopper, Captain Zidgel sat in his space captain seat and upgraded his captain's blog as usual. "Captain's blog, stardate...uh...Summer Solstice, I suppose, we're going to E.T. town to prepare for the Summer Solstice Festival where her Lehakian majesty, Queen Alissa, will amaze us all with her fantastic leadership skills she demonstrated so long ago."

Michelle asked, "What is the Summer Solstice Festival?"

"The Summer Solstice Festival started on the day Queen Alissa was given her award, a holiday honoring her," answered Fidgel.

"The reason why she received this holiday was because she was very effective when it came to defending the Federation from outside forces," continued Midgel.

"And all of the aliens were so grateful to her for saving them they decided to form a special festival where a reenactment of the events would occur," Fidgel concluded his explanation.

"Cool! I can't wait to see all of that happen!" exclaimed Jason.

"Buckle up for landing, everyone!" announced Midgel, "We're heading for E.T. town."

Midgel then pulled a lever that ejected some new landing gear, a pair of roller skates. The roller skate wheels didn't spin as quickly as planned. This caused the ship to drag on the ground and crash.

"Wow, Midgel, even a Cosmos Keeper would be jealous of your landing skills!" exclaimed Zidgel.

"Yeah, a Cosmos Keeper would totally be jealous of that kind of landing." Fidgel muttered sarcastically.

"Hey! When was the last time a Cosmos Keeper successfully landed a ship?!" Zidgel retorted.

"Well, a Cosmos Keeper would do a much better job than that," Fidgel pointed out.

Samantha sensed a argument between Fidgel and Zidgel, so she cut in on the argument, "Hey, why don't you two discuss this later? I need to do some research on the Elements of the Nine Cosmos Keepers."

"Why do you want to know about the Elements of the Nine Cosmos Keepers?" asked Fidgel.

"The Elements are the most powerful artifacts known to aliens, and I want to know how they work. They might be needed later on," answered Samantha.

"Very well then, we'll be outside when you're done," said Zidgel.

"Captain, can my sister and I help Samantha with her research here on the ship?" asked Jason.

"I don't see any reason why not," answered Zidgel.

"Well, then, Jason, can you go to the storage bay and get me that research book about all the rumors going on?" asked Samantha.

"Sure thing, Sam!" answered Jason.

Jason went to the storage bay, got the book, returned to Samantha, and gave it to her. Samantha searched the book for an article about the Elements of the Nine Cosmos Keepers.

"Elements, Elements, E, E, E... Aha! Elements of the Nine Cosmos Keepers, see: Lehakian King of Winter?" said Samantha as she looked through the book.

"Lehakian King of Winter? Isn't that a false rumor?" asked Michelle.

"Lehakian, Lehakian... aha!" exclaimed Samantha when she found the article. She then read it, "The Lehakian King of Winter, a powerful Lehakian who wanted to take over the Federation, defeated by the Elements of Eleven Cosmos Keepers and imprisoned in Antarctica. Rumors are that on the longest day of the fortieth year, penguins will aid in his escape, and he will bring about an eternal ice age!" She then gasped and asked Jason, "Do you know what this means?!"

"No," answered Jason as he turned to get out of the ship. "Woah!" he exclaimed as he tripped on a wire that was lying around. "Ouch!"

"I must tell Queen Alissa at once!" exclaimed Samantha. She turned on the ship's communicator.

A female-sounding robot voice asked, "Hello, who do you wish to speak to?"

"Queen Alissa," answered Samantha.

"I am sorry, she is not available to talk to. Do you want to leave a message anyway?" the robot voice asked her.

"Yes," answered Samantha.

"Then please say it right here," said the robot voice.

"Your Lehakian majesty, my curiosity about the Elements of the Nine Cosmos Keepers has led me to discover that something really bad is about to happen! The Lehakian King of Winter a.k.a Frostbite Ice is about to return to Federation Space, and bring with him an eternal ice age! Something must be done to make sure this terrible rumor remains false. I await your response." said Samantha.

"Shouldn't we be going now?" asked Jason, "It may quite some time before there's a response."

"Yes, let's get going!" answered Samantha.

As Jason, Michelle, and Samantha turned around to leave the ship, the robot voice said, "You have a message from Queen Alissa." They ran to hear what the message was.

"Samantha, you know that I value your diligence and that I trust you completely, but you simply must stop shutting yourself out from others! Don't you know how much there is to life? Why don't you go and see how the preparations of the Summer Solstice Ceremony are going? While you are doing that, I have an even more essential task for you to complete: socialize with your fellow crew members! And I have one more thing to tell you, you and your cousins will stay at a building which was once used as a library in E.T. town while you are going with the Penguins on their missions," said Queen Alissa. Samantha groaned in disappointment.

"Look on the bright side, Samantha. Queen Alissa arranged for us to stay at a building which was once used as a library in E.T. town while we are going with the Penguins on their missions," Michelle reassured her cousin, "Doesn't that make you happy?"

"Of course it does!" answered Samantha sarcastically, "Do you know why? Because I'm right! I'll see how the preparations are going as fast as I can, then get to the old library to find some proof of Frostbite Ice's return."

"But will you get to socialize like Queen Alissa said?" asked Jason.

"She said to check on the preparations. Although I'm not one of her closest subjects, I'll still do as she orders, but the fate of the entire Federation does not rest on me getting to know the Penguins better," answered Samantha.

"Maybe the Penguins will have interesting things to talk about," said Michelle. The three kids then got out of the ship. As they were walking to check on the preparations, a female Fiordland penguin of average weight and a few inches shorter than Dr. Fidgel with yellow hair styled in a bun wearing a jumpsuit similar to the Fidgel's jumpsuit, but blue and with the letter A on the collar approached them.

"Come on, Samantha, just try," said Jason.

"Uh...hello?" Samantha greeted the female penguin in a blue jumpsuit. The female penguin scowled at her and turned her head away from the kids before she resumed walking.

"Well, that could have gone better," said Samantha.

* * *

Jason, Michelle, and Samantha then walked to an interesting-looking house two stories high and average sized.

"Summer Solstice Festival official overseer's checklist. Number one, banquet preparations where Fidgel and someone else will be working," said Jason as he held his checklist. They saw Fidgel with a male Galapagos penguin experimenting with a variety with food.

"Let's get this over with," muttered Samantha as she walked toward the male Galapagos penguin. She then greeted him, "Good afternoon, my name is Samantha Conrad-"

"Well, good afternoon to you too, Miss Conrad, a pleasure making your acquaintance. I am Andras Saul, Fidgel here was telling me all about you and your cousins and the adventures you, he, and three other penguins go on as we were working on the food," the Galapagos penguin introduced himself as he quickly shook Samantha's hand.

"Andras and I decided to use some of his unique recipes," said Fidgel.

"And you and Andras are in charge of the food?" asked Michelle.

"Affirmative," answered Andras, "Are you interested in sampling some of our delicacies?"

"As long as it doesn't take too long," answered Samantha.

"Excellent!" exclaimed Andras, "We've got nightshade berry pie, puffer fish-with all the 'poison' still intact to preserve the flavor-, salads made of vegetables rich in the minerals of arsenic and cyanide, and soups flavored with the herb of hemlock!" Right after they heard Andras' list, Jason's and Michelle's expressions formed into ones of horror.

"We can't eat any of those foods!" Jason exclaimed.

"Of course you can't, you're humans," Andras responded, "but many of our guest will be penguins."

"Meaning..." said Michelle.

"That we can't be serving any desserts with chocolate in them or any other human foods toxic to penguins. We wouldn't want any of our guests to die of theobromine poisoning, would we?"

"...I guess not," Michelle replied, confused at that one word Andras said before he said poisoning.

"Well, I see the food situation is handled, so we'll be on our way." said Samantha.

"Don't you have time to taste any of these delicacies?" asked Andras.

"Sorry, but we have an awful lot to do..." answered Samantha.

Fidgel and Andras sighed in disappointment. Samantha looked at them for a few seconds before changing her mind. "Fine," said Samantha.

"Thank you very much for my little offer!" exclaimed Andras. A couple of minutes later, the three kids went to check on the air stunt demonstration team.

* * *

"Food is taken care of, next is the air stunt demonstration team," said Jason.

"Ugh... I hope I don't suffer food poisoning..." Samantha moaned as she clutched her stomach.

"Shouldn't you be able to eat everything that humans and penguins can eat?" Jason asked as he was stuffing his mouth with some leftover pastries.

"That's not how it works," Samantha groaned in response.

"Hmm, Midgel is supposed to be working in the air stunt demonstration team with an Adelie penguin named Qwagra," said Jason.

Samantha looked around and saw some bits and pieces of mini-spaceships lying around. "Well, neither of them are doing a very good job, are they?" she asked. Then, as if out of nowhere, a small orange spaceship and another blue spaceship flew over Samantha quite suddenly. The spaceships attempted to land without any landing gear of any sort, but crashed into a large tree. A female Adelie penguin about as short as Midgel with short scruffy hair and wearing a blue jumpsuit with a dark blue coat over it hopped out of the orange ship.

"Huh, looks like someone's Earth mom wanted first contact with another species to occur very soon," the Adelie penguin remarked at Samantha's appearance.

"Is this your way of saying hello?" Samantha asked in disdain of Qwagra's comment.

"Nah, it's just my way of saying your mom was feeling-" Qwagra was about to conclude her answer when Midgel hopped out of the blue ship and spoke up.

"Not bad, Qwagra, but we can do better."

"I assume this Qwagra is your partner, Midgel," said Samantha.

"Who else? I've heard of you and your cousins," replied Qwagra. "Why, you heard of me?"

"I heard that you and Midgel are supposed to be working in the air stunt demonstration team," answered Samantha.

"Oh yeah, that team! We haven't finished practicing, though," Qwagra responded.

"Practicing for what?" asked Jason.

"The Cosmos Keepers themselves!" answered Qwagra. She pointed to a poster of various Cosmos Keepers. "They're gonna show up at the Festival today, and I'm gonna show 'em my stuff!"

"Cosmos Keepers?" asked Jason.

"Yep!" answered Qwagra.

"The most powerful beings ever to be seen in the entire galaxy?" asked Michelle.

"That's them," answered Qwagra.

"Ha! Please. They'd never watch a penguin whose greeting consists of commenting something about their mom," Samantha scoffed.

"Hey! I didn't say anything about any of the Cosmos Keepers' moms when I first met them!" exclaimed Qwagra.

"So?" Samantha shrugged off what she just heard.

"I didn't because that would imply the Cosmos Keepers had moms to begin with," Qwagra explained, with a hint of condescension in her voice.

"Uh..." Samantha struggled to find a response.

"That's what I thought," Qwagra said with a smirk. She and Midgel hopped into their ships and flew off.

"Man, Qwagra is cool!" exclaimed Jason. Samantha glared at Jason in distaste of that statement.

"Oh, come on! I'm sure she didn't mean it when she said that thing about your mom!" Jason attempted to defend Qwagra.

* * *

At the town hall, the three kids started checking on the decorations.

"Wow, I wonder who decorated this place," Michelle said in awe. The town hall was decorated with ribbons and bows hanging over where they were standing, and there was a large banner hanging as well.

"These decorations are certainly amazing," replied Samantha. When she noticed that Jason and Michelle were still staring at how well decorated the hall was, she immediately decided that it was time to leave. "Well, we'd better get going now, we don't want to be late!" she called out.

"But we barely even stayed here!" complained Michelle.

"Yeah, why are we leaving so soon?" asked Jason.

"The sooner we check over the Summer Solstice Festival preparations, the better," answered Samantha. Jason and Michelle groaned in disappointment as they and Samantha prepared to exit the town hall. Before they actually left, a voice shouted out to them,

"Hey! Where are you going?" Jason, Michelle, and Samantha turned to see two Chinstrap penguins who were working on some ribbons. The first penguin wore a blue tailor outfit. The second one wore a green tailor outfit. They walked towards where they were.

"Who are you?" asked Samantha.

"I'm Faramer, and that's my brother, Tondrus," the first penguin answered. Tondrus looked up to where the three kids were standing. When he caught sight of Samantha's appearance, he stared at her deep in thought.

"Hmm...what will look good on you?" he asked.

"Oh, I'm just here to check on the decorations, and then I'll be out of here."" answered Samantha.

"Wait a minute, you're not leaving until I find something that'll look good on a hybrid like you," Tondrus told her with a hint of strictness.

"But-" Samantha was about to say what she was planning to do when Faramer and Tondrus went straight up to her and pulled her over to where she would get her hair fixed.

* * *

At a clothing shop, Faramer and Tondrus switched through different outfits for Samantha. Tondrus held up a dark purple long-sleeved dress for his brother to see if it would look good on Samantha.

"Does this look good?" asked Tondrus.

"No," Faramer shook his head, "it's too penguin." He then held up a bright yellow short-sleeved dress. "This one looks better."

"No way!" Tondrus exclaimed, "That's too human!" By now, Samantha was starting to get a little impatient.

"I appreciate the hard work you've done," she spoke up, "Really I do, but I really have to leave now." Faramer and Tondrus turned to look at her in confusion.

"Why leave so soon?" they asked at the same time.

"Because Queen Alissa sent me a message from the Planet Lehakia to-" Faramer immediately interrupted Samantha when she mentioned Lehakia.

"Wait, did you say Lehakia?" he asked. Samantha nodded her head.

"As I was saying," she was then cut off again by Tondrus.

"Did we ever tell you how much we would fit in living in Lehakia?" he stated. Faramer began to boast about how Lehakia will the place for him.

"Sure, we won't live as long as the Lehakians, but their wings and eyes will give us ideas for new outfits!" Before he could boast any further, he looked at Samantha. "Speaking of ideas, I got one right now!"

"Really?!" exclaimed Tondrus, "Then let's discuss this new idea!"

"Well, the outfit has a translucent cape, and..." As Faramer and Tondrus discussed what the outfit should look like, Samantha turned to her cousins and tilted her head towards the exit to let them know it was time to leave. Jason and Michelle shook their heads. They wanted to know what how the outfit will turn out. Samantha glared at them and pointed sternly to the exit. Her actions told them that she was the oldest and she is the one who gets to decide whether or not they will leave. Jason and Michelle groaned in disappointment as they and Samantha left the boutique.

* * *

"I still don't get why we had to leave without knowing all the details about the outfit," complained Michelle.

"Hey, outfits aren't everything," replied Samantha. She asked Jason, "What's next on the list?"

"Oh, uh, music! It's the last one!" answered Jason. The three stopped as they heard music in the distance. They walked to the source of the music, which was a mini-orchestra conducted by Kevin and a female African penguin with a side braid and wearing a blue jumpsuit with the letter O on the chestplate.

"And cut!" exclaimed the African penguin. She walked to a male king penguin with a trumpet.

"Remember to play your part after the lead player sounds his instrument, not before," she told him.

"Got it, ma'am," replied the male king penguin.

"Now from the top please. A one, and a two, and three," said the African penguin.

"Hello!" said Michelle as she, Jason and Samantha, ran towards the two penguins.

"Oh, hello!" said the African penguin.

"We're here to check up on the music and it's sounding beautiful," said Samantha.

"Why, thank you!" replied the African penguin.

"What's your name?" Samantha asked.

"My name is Lt. Oceranne," answered the African penguin, "And Kevin and I were just going over this orchestra's rehearsals.

"Have you heard of us?" Jason asked.

"Of course!" answered Oceranne, "Kevin told me about you. Although showed me would be a more accurate term to describe it." She and the kids turned their heads and saw Kevin holding up some crudely drawn pictures of Jason, Michelle, and Samantha.

"Right," Samantha responded, unimpressed.

"Jason, can you please tell me more about the space adventures you had with the Penguins?" Oceranne asked in enthusiasm.

"Of course!" Jason answered with a look of pride on his face. He cleared his throat and his narration began. "It all started when I found the spaceship in the attic of my grandmum's cottage."

* * *

"...and that's how I saved Planet Tell-A-Lie from being flattened," continued Jason. He asked Oceranne, "Do you wanna hear about how Samantha found out about the Penguins and how Michelle and I found out she was half human, half penguin?"

"I would love to hear it!" answered Oceranne.

"Oh, hey, we're here already!" Samantha exclaimed before Jason could say another word. All five of them have arrived at an old library, where the Fiordland penguin the kids met earlier was waiting.

"What brings you here to this rundown place?" she asked with a scowl.

"This is where we're staying while in E. T. town and we have some work to do," answered Samantha.

"Well, I was brought here by the captain of the Rockhopper for something. What that something is, don't ask me, I don't know. And frankly, I haven't been given one reason why I should care," the Fiordland penguin retorted.

"Funny you should say that, Dr. Aleera," Oceranne added, "I was supposed to come here for the exact same reason. And unlike you, I actually do care." Aleera turned to Samantha.

"So, do you need any help with this work?" she asked.

"No, we can do it ourselves," answered Samantha. Aleera and Oceranne entered the library. After that, Samantha shoved Jason and Michelle into the library before going into the library herself and slammed the door.

"Are you sure?" Aleera inquired.

"I'm sure I can convince Queen Alissa that Frostbite Ice is coming without your help. I just need to be alone without any distractions," replied Samantha. "Where's the light switch?" she asked as she looked around in the dark. Suddenly, the lights flicked on, revealing a massive surprise party in the library.

"Surprise!" exclaimed the various party goers. Samantha and Aleera groaned in frustration.

"What's going on here?" Aleera demanded.

"Looks like a surprise party," Oceranne responded.

"A party in a library? But aren't libraries supposed to be quiet?" Samantha asked.

"Welcome to the U.F.P.S. Rockhopper, Dr. Aleera and Lt. Oceranne!" a haughty voice echoed throughout the library. The kids, Aleera, and Oceranne turned around to face the voice's source, none other than Captain Zidgel of the Rockhopper.

"Is that what this is all about?!" Aleera snapped.

"I couldn't have new crew members aboard my ship without a welcoming party, could I?" Zidgel said with a boastful grin.

"Captain, I'm a doctor, not a party penguin!" Aleera retorted as she stormed off out of the party.

"Party pooper," Zidgel commented with a frown replacing his grin.

"Captain, I think I'll join her," Samantha stated before she stormed off upstairs.

"Hey, that's not where our new doctor went!" Zidgel called out to her, "Well, that makes two party poopers."

* * *

In Jason, Michelle, and Samantha's bedroom upstairs, Samantha groaned as she covered her head with a pillow and looked outside. Just then, Michelle walked in. "Come on, Samantha! Captain Zidgel is gonna start his welcoming speech for Aleera and Oceranne! Wanna listen to it?" she asked her.

"No!" answered Samantha, "All the aliens in this town are crazy!"

"It's almost time for the Summer Solstice Festival. You really should lighten up, Samantha. It's a party!" replied Michelle. Samantha mockingly imitated her statement just before talking to herself.

"Ugh, here I thought I'd have time to learn about the Elements of the Nine Cosmos Keepers but, no, all these ridiculous distractions have kept me from it! 'Rumors that on the longest day of the fortieth year, penguins will aid in his escape, and he will bring about perpetual winter.' I hope Queen Alissa was right... I hope it is indeed false..."

"Come on, Samantha!" Michelle interrupted, "It's time for the Summer Solstice Festival!"

* * *

In the town hall of E.T. town, hundreds of aliens awaited Queen Alissa's appearance. Kevin and Oceranne's mini-orchestra announced the start of the event. The spotlight quickly shifted to the mayor of E.T. town, a king penguin wearing a fancy suit.

"Ladies and gentlemen, as mayor of E.T. town, it is my great pleasure to announce the beginning of the Summer Solstice Festival!" he announced. The aliens cheered. "In just a few moments, our town will witness an amazing queen, and celebrate this, the longest day of the year!" Samantha then noticed that there was some ice and snow outside. "And now, it is my great honor to introduce to you the ruler of our land, the very Lehakian who knew how to save us all from those dreaded outside forces..."

"Ready?" Kevin asked the musicians.

"Ready!" they answered.

"Queen Alissa!" the mayor announced. The mini-orchestra announced the arrival of the queen. Fidgel raised the curtain to reveal her. The spotlight shifted to where she would appear, but she was nowhere to be seen.

"What?" Fidgel exclaimed.

"This can't be good," said Samantha.

"Remain calm, everybody, there must be a reasonable explanation!" the mayor said nervously.

"Oh, I hope she is just late," Aleera said nervously, using her shaking hands to fidget around with her new jumpsuit.

"The High Queen is gone!" exclaimed Fidgel, returning from looking for the queen. The aliens gasped in horror as a blizzard filled up the stage.

"Oh, no," whispered Samantha as the blizzard faded away to reveal an icy shape of a penguin with bluish white hair, icy blue compound eyes with blue sclera, icy insect wings, ice armor, and an ice crown. "It's Frostbite Ice!"

Jason and Michelle gasped in horror at the mention of the Lehakian's name.

"Well, hello, my pathetic subjects! It's been a long time since I've seen your puny, little High-And-Mighty-Queen-Alissa-loving faces," said Frostbite Ice as he looked at the alien's terrified faces.

"I may be a doctor, but that doesn't mean I'll hesitate to knock you out!" exclaimed Aleera as she attempted to run up to and jab Frostbite Ice with a hypospray. Midgel grabbed her arm to stop her.

"Wait just a minute, doctor, we don't know what we're dealing with," he told her.

Frostbite Ice chuckled and asked the aliens, "Why, am I not royal enough for you? Don't you know who I am?"

"Some ruler-wannabe with an obsession with all things ice and snow?" Aleera asked rhetorically.

"Does my crown still count now that I have been imprisoned for forty years? Were the rumors not recalled? Were the signs not seen?" asked Frostbite Ice as he flew towards Kevin, Oceranne, and Fidgel.

"They have, by me! And I know who you are. You're the Lehakian King of Winter, Frostbite Ice!" answered Samantha. All of the aliens gasped in horror when she mentioned the name of the Lehakian from that rumor that they all thought was false.

"What an interesting surprise! Somebody actually remembered me! And it's a little half-breed girl! Then I assume you also know why I'm here," replied Frostbite Ice.

"You're here to... to..." Samantha gulped, unable to finish her sentence and react to the Lehakian's half-breed remark.

"Remember this summertime, puny aliens, for it will be your last. From now on and forever, the winter will last forever!" Frostbite Ice proclaimed, laughing manically. Samantha and the aliens became frightened at the thought of an eternal ice age.

To be continued...


	2. The Lehakian King of Winter: Part Two

After Frostbite Ice proclaimed the beginning of his eternal interstellar ice age, he laughed maniacally.

"Seize him! Only he knows where Queen Alissa is!" the mayor ordered as he pointed at Frostbite Ice. Three penguin guards prepared to charge at Frostbite Ice.

"Just try to stop me, pathetic weaklings!" Frostbite Ice exclaimed as he fired a freeze ray at each of the guards while laughing maniacally. He used his wings to lift himself into the air and swiftly exit the town hall.

"You're not getting away with this!" exclaimed Aleera as she broke free of Midgel's grasp and chased after Frostbite Ice. However, he rushed so far ahead of her that she lost sight of him. She noticed Jason, Michelle, and Samantha running towards the library. She turned around and followed them close behind.

* * *

In the library, Samantha frantically searched through the bookshelves. "Ugh! How can I stop Frostbite Ice without the Elements of the Nine Cosmos Keepers?"

"What are those? And how do you know about Frostbite Ice?" asked Oceranne.

"I heard of the rumors about Frostbite Ice. Some mysterious objects called the Elements of the Nine Cosmos Keepers are the only things that can stop him, but I don't know what they are, where to find them, I don't even know what they do!" answered Samantha.

"The Elements of the Nine Cosmos Keepers: A Reference Guide," Aleera read from the bookshelf, "Interesting."

Samantha ran to the bookshelf and shoved her aside, "Where did you find that?!"

"I found it under 'E', you know, where all of the books with titles beginning with 'E' belong," answered Aleera.

"Right," Samantha replied. She took the book out of the shelf and began reading it. "Seven Elements of the Eleven Cosmos Keepers exist, but only six are known: Generosity, Loyalty, Diligence, Patience, Kindness, and Meekness. The seventh is a complete mystery. Rumors are, the last known location of the Elements was in the ancient castle of the royal Lehakian family. It is located in the Odarmus Peninsula on the Planet Lehakia."

* * *

As the Rockhopper flew towards its next destination, within its interior, Lt. Oceranne fiddled around with the various buttons in the communications center of the ship.

"So, where are the ship's weapon systems?" she asked.

"Oh, this ship doesn't have any weapons," Midgel answered, "We never had any need for them since we always travel to Federation planets."

"But what if a ship decides to fire on us? Then, we would be completely defenseless."

"We still have our shields," Midgel pointed out.

"And if the ship's shields are out, there's still no way to tell the other ship to back off."

"Oh, we don't have to do that since we can always retreat," Zidgel added. Oceranne turned back to face the communications center she was now in charge of and resumed her button fiddling.

"Note to self, issue a request for a weapons system for the U.F.P.S. Rockhopper," she said under her breath. Dr. Aleera stared at Fidgel's science center in disbelief.

"This is where I'll perform my duties as the ship's new doctor?" she questioned in a strong skeptical tone.

"Well, the Rockhopper doesn't have a sick bay," Fidgel responded, awkwardly tugging on his collar, "Besides, we both have the title of 'doctor', don't we?"

"Doctor, I'm a doctor, not a scientist," Aleera snapped, "Now I need to issue a request for a sick bay to be installed in this unfinished ship."

"Approaching Planet Lehakia, prepare for landing!" Midgel announced. The rest of the crew began their standard ship landing preparations. Fidgel, Jason, Michelle, and Samantha all used their feet to push the red buttons that activated their green air-filled chairs and wrapped their seat beats around them. Zidgel buckled himself in his captain's chair. Kevin jumped into his own chair away from the others. Oceranne led Aleera to her communications center and pressed a button that activated the seat beats that wrapped themselves around the two new crew members. The Rockhopper bounced up and down on the surface a few times before it skidded a couple a feet and came to a complete stop.

"Excellent landing, Midgel!" Zidgel complimented, "You are definitely showing improvement!"

"If that was a good landing, then I'm not a doctor," Aleera snided before she exited the ship with the rest of the crew.

* * *

As the Rockhopper crew began their trek across the peninsula, Zidgel caught glance at how many layers of clothing Aleera had on.

"Say, my good doctor, is there any reason why you have to wrap yourself up like a birthday present?" he asked.

"I hate the cold with a burning passion!" she yelled, her scarf wrapped around her beak muffling her voice. "And don't even think about making a comment how I'm not supposed to hate the cold because of what species I am!" Zidgel opened his beak and was about to say something when a cranky young adult female Chinstrap penguin clothed in a torn teal dress appeared out from behind a snow mound and hobbled towards them due to her back being hunched over a little.

"What do all of you want?!" she snapped.

"We're just on our way to a castle," answered Michelle. In response, the female penguin swung her fist at Michelle. Michelle yelped in fear and closed her eyes tight as she braced herself for the upcoming blow. When she slowly opened one eye, she saw Zidgel grabbing the female penguin's arm hard and pushing her back.

"What's the big idea, lady?!" exclaimed Zidgel.

"She has no idea on what you really want!" the female penguin retorted as she struggled to pull herself away from Zidgel's grip, "And my name is Heathrette!" After she finally broke free of his grasp, Kevin tried to get the others' attention by pointing at Heathrette. Zidgel paid no attention as he turned to Oceranne for some help.

"Oceranne, a little help over here? You're our new communications officer, after all!" he called out. Oceranne marched over to where Zidgel and Heathrette were stand with a huff.

"Why did you try to hit her when she answered your question?" she asked sternly.

"That little earthling girl is playing some sort of game," answered Heathrette, "but I'm not buying it!" she raised her arm to slap Oceranne across the face, but Oceranne ducked in order to dodge the slap. Kevin continued to point at Heathrette as Oceranne walked over to where Midgel was.

"Well, Midgel, you saw how well my first assignment on the Rockhopper turned out," she told him.

"Got it," he replied. He walked over to Heathrette. On his way, he went past Kevin, who was attempting to get his attention by waving a flag wildly.

"Why didn't you believe Michelle when she told you where we're going?" Midgel asked with his index finger pointed at Heathrette.

"There's no way you would really be going to a castle," she scoffed. Midgel immediately ran towards Fidgel and Aleera before Heathreatte could slap him.

"Fidgel, Aleera, she's all yours now," he said.

"Yippee," Aleera said with a lack of enthusiasm. She and Fidgel prepared to go over to Heathrette and give her a firm talking to.

"What's gotten into you right now?!" she demanded.

"Those other penguins are attempting to play along with this little girl, but I won't be a part of it!" Heathrette retorted.

"What makes you think this is all a game?!" Aleera asked. Heathrette opened her beak and was about to yell back at her when Kevin, who was fed up with the fact that no one paid attention to him, resorted to honking a horn. The others looked at him in confusion.

"What is it, Kevin?" asked Zidgel. Kevin answered by walking straight up to Heathrette and pointing at her back. Heathrette cried out in pain when Kevin pulled something out of her back. Kevin held up the object and revealed a sharp icicle.

"Oh, thanks!" Heathrette groaned in relief as she rubbed her back, "That was bothering me all day."

"So that's why you were so angry at me," Michelle said out loud.

"Yeah," Heathrette said sheepishly, "when you're in a great amount of pain, you tend to snap at people."

"If you feel like apologizing right now, don't worry about it, I know you don't usually act like that," Michelle reassured her.

"Anyway, do you know the way to the ruins of the castle?" Samantha asked.

"Ruins...castle," Heathrette pondered Samantha's question for a moment, "Oh, you mean the ruins of the castle where the Lehakian royal family used to live?"

"That's right," Samantha nodded her head.

"Well, all you have to do is walk up this path to the Stretching Plains and you won't have a hard time finding it," Heathrette explained.

"Thanks!" Samantha waved her hand as she and the others started to walk up the path.

"Anytime!" Heathrette waved back. When they reached a certain distance from her, Samantha turned to Kevin.

"How did you know about the icicle?" Samantha asked Kevin, who dropped the icicle.

"When she walked towards us, I saw something sticking out of her back," he replied. As soon as the Rockhopper crew was close to the Stretching Plains, Frostbite Ice emerged out of his hiding spot and stomped on the icicle in anger, completely shattering it. He started to fly behind the crew at a distance, glaring at Kevin in particular.

* * *

As the crew walked through the plains, they came upon a thick dust storm.

"What's a dust storm doing in the middle of a snowy area?" asked Oceranne. From a distance, they saw a dust devil spinning rapidly. Shielding their eyes from all the sand constantly blowing, they slowly walked towards it. They were about to take another step when the dust devil died down, as if it sensed their arrival, revealing a female penguin clothed in a light brown robe and a slightly darker brown veil that concealed everything on her head except for her eyes. She had a sand-like aura surrounding her.

"Brrr," she said in a thick Arabic accent with her teeth chattering, "t-t-there w-w-wasn't a-a-any s-s-snow w-w-where I-I-I c-c-came f-f-from!"

"Shahara?!" Fidgel asked in surprise, "what are you doing here?!"

"Oh, I don't know. I was just taking a little stroll, minding my own business, when snow suddenly appeared!" she answered, "I wanted to find its source, but it came so quickly that I started to freeze. Around here, I saw some coats and materials that are used to start a fire. I started to run towards them when someone fired a phaser gun at them and completely obliterated them! The matches and a few firewood were the only things not blown away, but every time I try to start a fire, it keeps going out because I don't have enough fuel for it!" After she finished explaining how she was in this situation, she turned into a dust devil in frustration and an attempt to keep herself warm. In doing so, some sand got into Samantha's and Midgel's eyes.

"Pffft! Some Cosmos Keeper you are," said Midgel, annoyed at the fact that she wasn't able to start a fire. He rubbed the sand out of his eyes.

"Seriously?! You can turn yourself into a tornado and yet you can't even stop any of that stuff from being blown away or even start a fire?!" asked Samantha, also annoyed as she rubbed the sand out of her eyes.

"Come on!" retorted Zidgel, "How can you be so insensitive? We all know that Cosmos Keepers are not omnipotent!"

"I couldn't have said it better myself!" Shahara replied.

"And since you don't have any power over fire and Hestia is nowhere to be found, neither of those can help warm you."

"True story!"

"Of course, you can't endure the cold because you have power over the deserts, not anywhere with ice and snow."

Shahara gasped, "Of course not!"

"And you can't turn into a dust devil forever."

"You speak words of truth! I can only remain in that form for so long!" she wailed.

"You're going to need some more fuel for that little fire!" exclaimed Zidgel. He then plucked a sharp ice piece off of a nearby rock.

"Captain, what are you-" Michelle asked when she saw Zidgel use the ice piece to cut something. Shahara's eye's widened when she saw that Zidgel cut off his own pompadour. He handed it over to Shahara with a smile on his face. "I don't think this is what you had in mind when you said you needed fuel, but it's better than nothing," he told her.

"Thank you! That fire won't go out now!" exclaimed Shahara, happy that her fire now has some fuel.

"Uh, Captain? You do realize that you don't have your pompadour anymore, right?" Midgel commented.

"Oh come on! When you want to be a true gentleman, er... penguin, you have to show generosity to a lady, especially if she's a Cosmos Keeper. Besides, it'll grow back. And I always keep at least one extra pompadour wig," replied Zidgel as he put a wig on his head. Shahara looked over her shoulder and saw a large pile of snow blocking the crew's path.

"I think I found a way to return the favor!" she exclaimed in delight. She transformed into a dust devil once more and blew away the snow pile.

"Thank you! We can continue on now!" Samantha told her as she and the others continued on their journey.

* * *

It wasn't too long until the crew came across a fork in the path. "Which way do we go?" Oceranne asked.

"Pfff! That's so obvious!" answered Zidgel. He prepared to walk on the left path when a voice stopped him.

"Wrong way! Wrong way!" The voice sounded like an old man. An elderly penguin clothed in a tattered light blue robe then appeared from the fog.

"If you walk this way, you will be doomed!"

"How do you know that?" asked Zidgel.

"Believe me, you do not want to go this way!" the old penguin answered.

"Out of the way, old man, uh, er, penguin! We have a place to go to!" scoffed Zidgel.

"Guys?" said Oceranne.

"You will regret walking down this path!" replied the old penguin. None of the crew members were pleased to hear that response. Midgel decided to butt in on this conversation.

"Look, we don't know who are, but we are in a hurry." He had no idea why this penguin wanted them to take the other path.

"Guys? Hello?" Oceranne asked.

"Let me handle this," Fidgel told Midgel. "Excuse me, sir. We hate to use force, but if you don't be reasonable and let us pass, we will have no other choice." His voice got stern as he spoke.

"You'd better take my advice and go the other way!" the old penguin retorted, still persisting in them taking the other path.

"Excuse me?" Oceranne spoke up a little louder than she did last time.

"Kevin? Can you come over here and give us a hand?" asked Fidgel. Kevin responded by walking up to the old penguin and saying,

"Hello!" The old penguin looked at him with a confused expression.

"Does that mean you will take the other path?" he asked. Aleera decided to march up to him to set him straight.

"Hey! We're here on a mission, and we don't need you to stall our completion of it!" she stated in a stern tone.

"Hello? Anyone?" asked Oceranne. She was starting to get irritated.

"I have wandered these ways for a much longer time than you have, madam," the old penguin replied. Oceranne became frustrated that everyone was ignoring her.

"Is anybody listening to me?!" she yelled. No sooner had she shouted than all the other penguins stared at her.

"Did you want to say something?" Zidgel asked.

"I've been trying to, but none of you would listen!" Oceranne answered with more frustration in her voice than before.

"Well, maybe you could speak louder!" retorted Zidgel.

"Quiet down and let the lass speak!" the old penguin replied in a stern manner. He then motioned at Oceranne to allow her to speak. In response, Oceranne walked slowly towards him.

"We will do as you say and go down the other path," she told him. The old penguin's eyebrows perked up when he noticed something about her tone. It was not stern, rude, or aggressive. It was calm, polite, and meek. He thought about what she said and how she said it for a moment. As soon as he decided how to respond, he did so,

"Well, since you were willing to obey my command unlike the other penguins, I think I can allow you could walk down this path, although you might regret it later on."

"Thank you, sir!" replied Oceranne, "You see, my fellow crew members and I are-"

"Oh, hey, look at the time!" Zidgel interrupted, "We'd better get going!" He and his crew then proceeded to walk down that very path. As they were walking out of the old penguin's sight, Aleera wanted to find out how Oceranne convinced the old penguin to let them pass.

"How come he let us walk down this path despite your willingness to obey him and not any of us despite our insistence to let us walk down this path?" she asked.

"Well, sometimes a little meekness is needed," Oceranne answered.

"I'm just glad she managed to get that old snake into letting us walk down that path," Zidgel commented. The crew continued their journey to the castle. However, they were unaware that the same old penguin that was mentioned was watching them from the snow.

"A snake, huh?" he muttered to himself, "I'll show you how much of a snake I can be." With that said, he felt around on his left palm and pressed a button on a small contraption. The old penguin pixelated away, leaving only the figure of Frostbite Ice. He resumed his flight to where the crew was heading.

* * *

"That old penguin was a liar," Zidgel scoffed, "He said that we would regret walking down that path, but I have no regrets whatsoever!"

"Why was he trying to convince us to take the other path?" asked Fidgel. As soon as he asked that, Aleera noticed a blue mound blocking the path.

"What have we here?" she asked. The mound started to wiggle a little bit. Fidgel walked up to it and started investigating it.

"Hmm...it looks like..." After investigating the mound for a while, he thought about what the mound could be for a few moments. "No, it can't be possible," he finally spoke.

"What can't be possible?" Oceranne asked.

"The mound looks like a giant snake, but snakes can never survive in weather like this," answered Fidgel. However, no sooner had he stated that than the mound wiggled a lot more to reveal exactly what Fidgel said what the mound looked like. Michelle, Aleera, Zidgel, and Kevin screamed in terror and hid behind Jason, Samantha, Midgel, Fidgel, and Oceranne.

"You were sssssssssssaying?" the snake hissed. Fidgel was rendered speechless for a few moments.

"Uh...how did you get here?" he asked when he was finally able to speak.

"That'ssssss not important," answered the snake, "What'ssssss important isssss that I am the one who guardssssss thisssss path."

"What are you guarding this path from?" asked Oceranne.

"I'm guarding thissssss path from intruderssssss ssssssssuch assssss yoursssssselvesssssss," replied the snake.

"So, what do we need to do in order to walk down this path?" asked Zidgel, who was hiding behind Kevin.

"You have to clear all of thisssssssss ssssssssssnow," the snake answered as he used his tail to point at the giant snow mound that was blocking the path. Jason, upon looking at the mound, was not looking forward to clearing it all that much.

"Do we have to clear that snow mound?" he complained. Baring his fangs, the snake hissed and his eyes glowed blue, aiming to scare Jason into submission. "Okay, I'll do it!" He ran to the snow pile and started to clear it quickly. The other members of the crew, afraid that the snake might do the same thing to them, followed him to the pile.

* * *

After the crew shoveled the snow for a little while, Zidgel was starting to get a little tired.

"I need a break from all this work!" he groaned, "Does anyone else want to join me?"

"Believe me, a break is very much welcomed by me," Aleera responded. She and Zidgel then walked aside and sat down to rest. Michelle had a confused look on her face when she saw them stop shoveling the snow.

"Captain, Doctor, why did you stop?" she asked.

"To recover from the possibility of frostbite, what's it look like?!" Aleera snapped back in frustration.

"But what about all this snow?" she inquired.

"Don't worry, you and the others can clear it for us," answered Zidgel.

"Yeah, but it'll take longer," Michelle muttered under her breath. A few moments later, Jason wasn't clearing the snow as quickly as he was before.

"You know," he said, "I think I'd like to take a short break." When Michelle caught glimpse of Jason walking over to where Zidgel and Aleera were sitting, she got a little frustrated.

"Oh, Jason, not you too!" groaned Michelle, "Now it'll take even longer for this pile to be cleared!"

"Michelle, just let him rest," Samantha replied as she grabbed bundles of now and tossed it aside.

"We can manage this without them anyway," agreed Oceranne. By now, she had shoveled one-tenth of the snow in the pile. "Well, that's my share of the work. Now I can relax!" She walked over to where Zidgel, Aleera, and Jason were sitting. Midgel got a little confused at why she stopped at first.

"Eh, what the heck? I've cleared enough snow anyway," he said to himself as he joined her to take a break.

"Oh, wonderful!" Fidgel snapped, "About half of us stopped shoveling the snow!" In response, Kevin used his arms to shovel the snow faster. As he was about a little less than halfway done, he poked his head above the part the pile that he was clearing.

"Doctor, Lieutenant, I'm tired," he said.

"Kevin, not now!" Fidgel groaned in frustration.

"Doctor, I think you should let them rest," Oceranne told him.

"Fine," Fidgel reluctantly agreed. Kevin then joined the others in taking a break.

"I think I've cleared enough snow for now," Oceranne said as she shoveled the last bit of her share of the snow pile. She then walked aside and sat down with the others. When Fidgel wasn't looking, Michelle stopped clearing the snow and joined Oceranne and the others.

"I'm going to stop clearing the pile now," Samantha told Fidgel.

"What?!" exclaimed Fidgel, "but who's going to help me clear this snow?!"

"Look, Doctor," replied Samantha, "I can't come in direct contact with snow as many times as you can." She strutted over to where everyone else was sitting.

"You know what?! I don't think any of you are exhausted at all!" Fidgel yelled at them, "I think you're just using that as an excuse to be as lazy as sloths! If you're not going to be diligent, I'll just have to clear this snow myself!" The others groaned and joined him, albeit reluctantly and slowly, in clearing the snow pile.

* * *

After the crew finished clearing the snow pile, Fidgel approached the snake.

"The snow pile has been cleared," he told the snake, "although it would've been cleared sooner if somebody helped me!" He glared at the others, who looked a little regretful.

"Excellent!" the snake replied, "Asssssssssss a reward, here'sssssssss a map to show a shortcut to your dessssssssstination." The others immediately gathered around Fidgel to see what shortcut to the castle the map showed.

"What gives? This map is blank!" Aleera said in frustration. Everyone else nodded their heads in agreement.

"Excuse me, Doctor," said Zidgel, "but why can't any of us see what's on this map?"

"Becaussssssse you didn't work hard enough to clear the ssssssssnow," the snake hissed at him.

"And I suppose we could see it if we cleared more snow?" Midgel asked rhetorically, raising an eyebrow.

"Of courssssssse!" the snake answered with a gleeful smile. The crew huddled closer together in an attempt to decipher the map.

"Now where's this shortcut located?" Aleera asked.

"According to this map, it's through the Cave of the Icy Air Blasts," Fidgel answered.

"Can't we go somewhere that doesn't involve ice or snow?" Aleera complained.

"I wonder what we'll find there," Zidgel pondered out loud as they walked towards the cave. Once they've gone out of his sight, the snake used his tail to press the same button on the contraption located in the middle of his body. Just as before, the snake pixelated away and left only the figure of Frostbite Ice. With a sinister smile, he followed the crew to the cave.

* * *

"Here we are at the icy air blasts!" Fidgel announced.

"So, what do the air blasts do?" Oceranne asked. Not long after she asked that very question, a dart hopped towards the cave and entered it. However, no sooner had he entered the cave than an air blast froze him right then and there. All of the crew members stared at the frozen dart with mouths and beaks wide open in horror.

"Does that answer your question?" Zidgel asked with quivering voice. Oceranne nodded her head.

"How are we ever going to get through that cave?" Michelle asked in concern.

"There's a little trick to that," answered Aleera, "I've done it before."

"Hold on, I thought you hated the cold," Zidgel commented in a confused tone.

"I do, I was blackmailed into learning this trick," Aleera glared at Zidgel.

"So, what does that trick do?" Jason asked in curiosity.

"Well," replied Aleera, "It goes something like this." She then went on to illustrate how to get through the cave by grabbing Fidgel by the arm and bringing him to the cave's entrance.

"You see," she said, "there's a pattern in which the air blasts fire. Every three minutes, five of the air blasts become dormant for six minutes. Like so." She pointed at the first ten air blasts that went dormant. She and Fidgel grabbed the opportunity to get through the cave and quickly maneuvered through them by running around some of the air blasts and ducking the ones above them. It wasn't long before they came to a halt at another set of air blasts. Even though they were also dormant, Fidgel and Aleera still waited there.

"What are we waiting for?" asked Fidgel, "these air blasts are dormant."

"We can't continue yet," Aleera answered, "they could fire at any moment." They stayed in the crouched-up position for a few moments. Fidgel started to fidget around in his position.

"But you said the air blasts fire in a certain pattern," Fidgel replied.

"Hey, I made no such claim," Aleera retorted. Fidgel didn't know how much more of this he was able to take. Without waiting for Aleera's instructions, he attempted to rush out towards the dormant air blasts. Aleera stretched out her arm and grabbed Fidgel by the arm to pull him away from an air blast that just became active.

After three minutes had passed, Aleera looked back, and she saw that the active air blasts were getting closer and closer.

"Time to go. Now, are you satisfied?" Aleera asked rhetorically. She grabbed Fidgel by the arm and they resumed their run. They jumped over some more dormant air blasts and ducked below some other air blasts. Right after a few moments flew by, they stopped again before another set of dormant air blasts. They repeated this pattern about five more times before Fidgel decided that where they stopped would be the best place to complain to Aleera.

"Is it really necessary to stop every time we encounter certain dormant air blasts?"

"Unless you want to get yourself killed, then yes!" Aleera snapped. Tired of having to wait repeatedly, Fidgel got up from his spot and prepared to dash towards the exit, which was only a few feet away from him. However, just after he advanced one stride towards it, he felt a pair of arms roughly yank him back to where he originally waited.

"You idiot!" Aleera screamed, "Do you want to get yourself killed?!" Fidgel was about to reply when the air blasts began firing once again.

"You see?! If it weren't for me, you would've become a part of a typical Lehakian tour! " Aleera pointed at the air blasts. Fidgel had no response, for he was occupied with following Aleera through the labyrinth of the cave and out into the open area covered in snow. They stood at the cave's exit to recover from their run.

"Wait here," ordered Aleera, "I'll be back after everyone else has made it through. And don't try any funny business." Fidgel nodded, not moving so much as an inch away from the exit.

* * *

"Ugh! How long have Fidgel and Aleera been in there?" Michelle groaned.

"Yeah! Does it really take that long?" Jason complained.

"And why was he the only one she brought with her?" Samantha asked.

"Beats me," Oceranne shrugged. She turned to the cave's entrance and caught a glance of a skinny penguin's shadow. Slowly, but surely, more and more of the penguin's body became visible. First, the head emerged out of the cave. Then, the rest of her body followed suit. She began to look around at each and every person, as if she were deciding on which one of them she should take with her through the cave next.

"Welcome back, Doctor," she remarked. Aleera ignored the African penguin's comment, for she had immersed herself into choosing a new partner who will travel along with her as they dodge the air blasts. A few minutes flew by before Aleera narrowed her choices to two penguins. Giving careful consideration, she grabbed Kevin by the arm and led him to the cave's entrance.

"Mother of the Cosmos Keepers," Zidgel groaned in frustration, "is she going to repeat this with every one of us?"

"It looks like it," Midgel answered.

* * *

Aleera's encounters with the rest of the crew varied from person to person. With some of them, she had to scream at them for rushing deeper into the cave due to some of the air blasts being dormant. With others, they did not start running without her until they got close to the exit.

After she finished guiding Jason out of the cave, she turned and faced the rest of the crew.

"Be very thankful I have the patience to deal with all of your impatience!" she said with frustration oozing from every word she yelled. None of the crew members said a single word after she joined them in their continuation of their journey toward the castle ruins.

Behind the cave's exit, Frostbite Ice clenched his teeth and aimed his gaze at Aleera with fury. Keeping this expression, he resumed his flight behind them.

* * *

It didn't take the crew long to arrive at a large mountain containing a a door not much taller than Midgel. The wall the door was in contained no panels.

"Is there any way to open this door?" Fidgel asked. Midgel began to place his hands all over the door. He didn't keep up this action for very long, due to the door automatically opening, revealing a tunnel through the mountain. Midgel began to walk through the tunnel. Oceranne was about to enter the tunnel when an invisible force threw her away from the entrance.

"Owww, what gives?" she groaned in pain. Aleera attempted to stick her hand into the tunnel, but the same invisible force jerked her hand back.

"Looks like some sort of force field," she deduced.

"Does that mean we can't follow Midgel?" Zidgel inquired.

"No, Midgel will probably find a way to deactivate this force field," Aleera responded.

* * *

Midgel's journey through the tunnel was quite uneventful, save for a few encounters with an icicle or two. After his exit from the tunnel, he caught sight of a panel to the left of the exit. He assumed this panel would deactivate the force field. He began to fiddle around with the panel's buttons. He was about to press three of the buttons all at once when he heard a soft voice call out to him.

"Midgel," the voice whispered gently. Midgel thought nothing of this voice and continued his attempt to shut down the force field via finding the right buttons to press.

"Midgel," the soft voice repeated. Midgel continued to ignore the voice as he fiddled around with five of the buttons.

"Midgel," the voice whispered for a third time. Midgel ceased his button fiddling to search for the voice's source.

"Who's there?" he asked, looking around.

"Isn't being first officer, pilot, and engineer too much to handle for one man...er...penguin such as yourself?" the voice inquired.

"Now that you mention it, being all three of those things has been pretty stressful lately," Midgel pondered out loud.

"What if I told you you no longer have to hold all three of those occupations?" the voice offered. The voice's source, a Gentoo penguin dressed in light blue flowing robes with dark blue wavy patterns etched into them, emerged from the shadows.

"Wait, you have that kind of authority?" Midgel questioned.

"When you're a member of the Council of Brush-Tailed Penguins, the authority you hold can allow you to do a variety of things," the penguin responded.

"I see," Midgel replied with a hint of interest, "How can you help me hold only one occupation?"

"Well, all you have to do is sign this contract," the penguin held out a digital pad with said contract showing. Midgel took the pad and began to read it. The Gentoo penguin started to twirl the digital pen around while he waited for Midgel to finish reading.

"Blah, blah, blah, can choose one occupation," he read to himself, "blah, blah, blah, on one condition, blah, blah, blah." He went back to the last part he read out loud and read that one condition. "Wait, are you trying to tell me that I have to leave the Rockhopper in order to choose whether I want to be just a first officer, pilot, or engineer?"

"Why, I finally encountered someone who actually reads the terms and conditions!" the penguin said gleefully.

"So, does that mean no or yes?" Midgel asked, ignoring the penguin's six-second burst of joy.

"Yes, you do have to leave your ship," the penguin replied as if all of his previous joy was vacuumed out of his voice. Midgel pondered whether or not leaving his ship would be worth having only one occupation. He reached out for the pen and grabbed it, but he hesitated to sign the contract. He started to put the pen in its holding place on the pad, but drew it back at the last second. Frustrated at this decision, he bit down on the pen and slammed it into the holding place.

"Forget it!" he snapped, "Being first officer, pilot, and engineer may be stressful sometimes, but I'm not going to give up the Rockhopper to get rid of that stress!" He resumed his button fiddling on the panel until he heard someone coming from the other side. Glaring at him, the Gentoo penguin walked back to the shadows from where he exited before. Once the rest of the Rockhopper crew exited the tunnel, the Gentoo penguin glared sharply at Midgel and bared his clenched teeth. He clenched his left fist so hard the pen started to break. He hurled the pad into the snow and stomped on it repeatedly until multiple cracks showed up in the pad's surface. He activated a device on his left wrist. The form of the Gentoo penguin pixelated away, only the form of Frostbite Ice remained. Frostbite Ice continued his flight toward the ancient castle.

* * *

Standing at the great ruins of the castle, the Rockhopper crew gazed at what was left of this mighty castle with their eyes and mouths wide open in awe and wonder.

"It's hard to believe how majestic this castle once was," Aleera said in a breathy tone.

"It is still majestic now, though," Oceranne added with the same tone Aleera spoke in. Almost mesmerized by the castle's structure, or what was left of it, Samantha trod toward the castle's tall entrance. She stepped into the castle and walked up the stairs. The rest of the Rockhopper crew followed her up to the second floor.

Each crew member turned themselves around in an attempt to fully capture the vastness of this room's emptiness. They focused their gazes in different areas of the room, some gazed at the ceiling, others aimed their awestruck gazes at the walls. As if to break himself away from the castle ruins' hypnosis, Zidgel turned away from one of the walls to face his fellow crew members.

"It looks like we'll be able to find those elements since there's almost nothing here," he broke the silence. Fidgel ceased his gazing and faced Zidgel.

"But they may be hidden somewhere," he pointed out. Midgel stopped looking at the ceiling and started to look at Zidgel and Fidgel.

"Well, why don't we start looking for them?" he suggested. Aleera ended her ruins-gazing and turned to Zidgel, Midgel, and Fidgel.

"Good idea," she concurred. She clapped her hands twice to snap the other crew members out of their ruins-gazing. They immediately joined Zidgel, Midgel, Fidgel, and Aleera to begin their traditional huddle. Before they could move to their positions, a faint, high-pitched hum began to echo throughout the vast room. Accompanying this hum was the dematerialization of Jason's, Michelle's, and Samantha's bodies. The kids began placing their hands on various parts of their own upper bodies in a futile attempt to stop their bodies from dematerializing. Once the kids' bodies had completely disappeared along with the faint hum, the penguin crew members couldn't bring themselves to say anything. A few seconds flew by before Fidgel began his operation of his Quantum Spectrum Analyzer.

"Sensors indicate transporter residue," he deduced from his analyzer's readings.

"Can this residue tell us where Jason, Michelle, and Samantha got transported to?" Oceranne asked. Fidgel continued to operate his analyzer in order to provide an answer.

"It seems that they got transported quite far from here," he concluded from his findings.

"Do you know where they are now?" Midgel inquired.

"No, but the residue does form a trail," Fidgel answered, "It won't last for very long, though."

"You heard the doctor, follow the residue trail!" Zidgel ordered. Fidgel pointed to another flight of stairs and starting walking up to the next floor. The rest of the Rockhopper crew followed not far behind.

* * *

Jason's, Michelle's, and Samantha's bodies began rematerializing in another room not quite as empty as the one they were in before. Once their bodies finished rematerializing, the faint hum that was heard before began to fade once again.

"Where are we?" Jason asked.

"We must have moved up a couple of floors," Samantha deduced from the less detailed but more spread out view of the Odarmus Peninsula.

"Who would want to transport us here?" Michelle asked.

"Yes, who would want to do something like that?" a menacing voice asked from the distance. Jason, Michelle, and Samantha turned around to face the voice's source, the Lehakian King of Winter himself.

"Frostbite Ice!" the kids shouted.

"Who else? Did you really think you were the first ones to be here?" he inquired.

"We never saw you," Jason answered.

"Thank you!" Frostbite Ice took a small bow, "my hiding skills have definitely improved."

"What are doing here?" Michelle asked as she, Jason, and Samantha walked toward the Lehakian.

"Oh, you know what I'm doing here," Frostbite Ice responded, "The real question is, what are you doing here?"

"We're here to defeat you once and for all!" Samantha declared.

"Oh, how adorable," Frostbite Ice chuckled, "this little half-breed girl and her little friends think they can actually stop me."

"Don't. Call. Me. Half-breed," said Samantha through her clenched teeth, "And these two are my cousins."

"'Don't call me half-breed'," Frostbite Ice repeated Samantha's words using a mocking tone, "As king of Lehakia, I can call you whatever I see fit." Instinctively, Jason, Michelle, and Samantha formed their hands into fists and slowly approached the Lehakian king.

"Oooh, are you going to leave teeny tiny bruises on my lower legs?" Frostbite Ice taunted. The kids' reaction was only to quicken their paces.

"Dearie me, I am feeling so frightened right now!" the Lehakian placed the back of his right hand to his forehead in an over dramatic fashion. Samantha swiftly walked ahead of her cousins and positioned her fist in order to have it prepared to collide right in the middle of Frostbite Ice's body.

"Oh, my, I know you're looking forward to seeing me in great agony over your little attack, but I'm afraid that isn't going to happen today," Frostbite Ice said before he pulled out a phaser gun. He aimed it at Samantha's left leg and fired. Before Samantha could react to her injury, Frostbite Ice pointed the gun at her right leg and fired a second time.

"Ahhhhhhhh!" Samantha cried out as she collapsed onto the ground.

"Samantha!" Jason and Michelle exclaimed at the sight of their hybrid cousin getting shot in both of her legs. Frostbite Ice targeted the gun at Jason's left arm.

"Let's see, where on your arm should I shoot you?" Frostbite Ice pondered out loud. He alternated between aiming at Jason's hand and his shoulder. Once he decided where he wanted to shoot, he pointed his gun at Jason's shoulder. Right when he fired the phaser, Michelle thought quickly and pushed Jason out of the way. The phaser whisked past Michelle's right arm, taking little chunks of her skin with it. Michelle screamed and clutched her arm tightly.

"Not what I had in mind, but I'll accept it." Frostbite Ice shrugged. He pointed his gun at Jason's chest.

"Too bad you don't have any more uninjured family members with you," he mocked. He was about to pull the trigger when he heard some voices coming from the staircase.

"More nuisances to shoot?" he asked, turning his attention away from the kids and toward the staircase. When the penguin members of the Rockhopper crew had finished climbing up the stairs, Jason, Michelle, and Samantha gasped.

"Jason, Michelle, are you thinking what I'm thinking?" asked Samantha.

"The elements need them for activation?" Jason responded.

"Exactly!" she answered. Michelle caught glimpse of some symbols carved into tiles that formed a circle.

"Guys!" she called out to the penguins, "Stand over where the pictures in the floor are!" The penguins were puzzled at first, but they began to make their way toward the symbols. Frostbite Ice sensed what they were trying to do and pointed his gun at Captain Zidgel. Before he was able to pull the trigger, Midgel pulled out his phaser gun and fired right at his chest. The impact knocked Frostbite Ice unconscious.

"So...what do we do now?" Aleera asked once she and the other penguins arrived where the symbols were.

"We think we know how to activate the elements," Jason answered.

"And how are they activated?" Oceranne inquired.

"They must be activated when someone who represents a certain element activates it, that is, Kevin will activate the element of kindness since he pulled the icicle out of Heathrette's back," Samantha explained.

"Kevin, step on that picture representing kindness," Michelle ordered. Kevin walked over to the tile with vines carved into it and placed his foot onto it. The floor in front of Kevin opened up and a green ray gun rose out of the opening and pointed upwards into the air.

"Zidgel, you represent the element of generosity because you gave your hair to Shahara," Michelle inferred.

"Which means..." Zidgel looked at Michelle with a confused expression.

"She's telling you to step on the title with the symbol representing generosity, Captain," Midgel clarified. Zidgel mouthed "oh" and positioned his foot on the tile with a drop of liquid carved in it. Another section of the floor opened up and a red ray gun emerged and pointed in the same area as the green gun.

"Oceranne, you spoke softly to that old penguin when everyone else spoke harshly to them. Therefore, you represent the element of meekness," Samantha concluded. Oceranne proceeded to walk to where a chalice was carved and pressed her foot into the tile. This floor section opened to make way for a yellow ray gun to rise up and aim where the green and red guns were aiming.

"Fidgel, because you continued clearing the snow even after everyone else stopped doing so, you represent the element of diligence," Jason elaborated. Fidgel made his way to the tile where a book was carved and applied pressure to it via stepping on the tile. A blue ray gun rose from the opening and shared the same target with the other ray guns.

"Aleera, you waited for a few minutes before you took the steps towards the exit of that cavern. That means you represent the element of patience." Michelle explained. Aleera strutted toward the tile with a seed on it and stomped on it. The section of the floor in front of her opened wide. A purple ray gun ascended from the opening and pointed at the same target as the other guns.

"Midgel, you represent the element of loyalty because you refused to abandon your crew just to hold one occupation," Jason inferred. Midgel headed off to the location of the tile with a fist carved into it and placed his foot onto it. An orange gun emerged from an opening and aimed at the same area as the rest of the guns.

"So...where's the symbol representing the ninth element?" Zidgel asked. Before any of the kids could answer, a tile separated from the others flipped over, revealing a cornerstone carved into it. Jason walked over to the tile and stepped on it. The floor section surrounded by the ray guns opened up and an indigo ray gun larger than the other guns rose up and aimed at Frostbite Ice, who was just starting to recover from his phaser gun wound.

"Guns...won't be...able...to...stop...me," he strained, slowly standing up.

"The ninth element must be the element of-" Jason began.

"The heart!" he, Michelle, and Samantha all shouted in realization. The seven ray guns all fired at the larger indigo gun until the gun was fully charged. Frostbite Ice was about to pull out his phaser gun when the indigo ray gun fired multiple electric bolts at him. Frostbite Ice screamed as the multicolored electric bolts shocked him all at once. The electric bolts targeted various body parts, such as the head, the stomach, and the lower midsection area. His arms jerked away in a futile attempt to dodge the bolts. One electric bolt even hit his head, briefly making his head see-through. Once the electric bolts had ceased shocking Frostbite Ice, he dropped down to the ground.

"Is, is he dead?" Samantha asked.

"I certainly hope not," a queenly voice responded from underneath a floor section. The tiles separated, and a Lehakian with yellow translucent insect wings and hair in an upper bun with hair flowing from beneath it walked out of the opening. She wore a golden crown on her head and a regal yellow dress with dark yellow gloves accompanying it.

"Queen Alissa!" the Rockhopper crew exclaimed.

"Yes, I am still alive," Queen Alissa said. She flew over to where Frostbite Ice was. His appearance now consisted of a light blue crown, robes with varying shades of blue, blue translucent insect wings, and black hair. When he finally opened his black compound eyes, his beak began to quiver at the sight of the Lehakian queen.

"F-f-forgive me," he stuttered.

"All is forgiven, Modnus. I am just glad that you are back, big brother," Queen Alissa reassured, offering Modnus a hand. Modnus grabbed it and pulled himself back up.

"Brother?!" the Rockhopper crew shouted.

"None of you asked," Queen Alissa shrugged. King Modnus threw his arms around his sister.

"There aren't enough words to describe how much I missed you, twin sister!" he said, tears streaming down his face.

"Same here, twin brother," Queen Alissa agreed, hugging her brother back. Aleera turned her head to the left and caught sight of Oceranne jotting down some notes on her notepad.

"Lieutenant, what are you doing?" she asked.

"Just planning out the details for an upcoming welcome home party," answered Oceranne.

* * *

On the Planet Lehakia, within the city of Hadunor, thousands of Lehakians showed up for the reunion of their king with their queen.

"Citizens of Lehakia, we have gathered here to celebrate the return of my twin brother, King Modnus!" Queen Alissa declared. The Lehakians began to clap and cheer.

"If it hadn't been for the bravery of the Rockhopper crew, my brother would not be standing here right now," Queen Alissa continued. The Lehakians' claps and cheers became deafening. Once the clapping and cheering had died down, a female Lehakian flew up from the crowd and hovered.

"Penguins, we would like to thank you for bringing back our King Modnus," she said before descended to the ground. The Lehakians' claps and cheers began once again, this time, they began to shout the names of each Rockhopper crew member.

* * *

Samantha grabbed a pen and some paper and rushed to the nearest table. Once she had seated herself, she started to write. Grandmum walked by and caught a glimpse of her.

"Writing something?" she asked.

"Yes, a letter to one girl who tried to talk to me," Samantha answered, "I'm trying to make my first friend who'll stick closer to me than a brother ever could."

"And here I was, worried that you would ignore what I told you," Grandmum replied, "You have no idea how happy it makes me to see you applying what you have heard from the Good Book."

"What good would it do if I didn't?" Samantha asked.

"Not a whole lot," answered Grandmum, "I hope she is willing to become your new friend, poppet."

"So do I, Grandmum, so do I," Samantha responded. Once she finished writing her letter, she folded it up and slid it into an envelope. She stuck a stamp onto the envelope. She went outside and placed the envelope inside the mailbox.

* * *

"Bedtime, my crumpets," Grandmum called upstairs to her grandchildren, "Remember to say your prayers."

"Dear God," Jason, Michelle, and Samantha began their prayers.

"Thank you for yet another exciting day," Samantha continued her prayer.

"And for two new friends," Jason prayed.

"And for reuniting a brother and a sister," said Michelle.

"Help me to remember that I'll always have good friends whom you can always count on," Samantha prayed.

"No matter how close or far away they are," said Jason.

"Amen," Jason, Michelle, and Samantha concluded their prayers.


	3. Treasures of the Federation

"Hey, Michelle, guess what?!" Samantha shouted. The sound of her voice caught Michelle’s attention. She ran down the stairs as quickly and carefully as she could.

"What?" she asked.

"I have something you might be interested in," Samantha answered. She opened her hand to reveal a necklace with a shiny purple crystal hanging from its center. Michelle's eyes opened wide upon sight of it.

"Wow!" Michelle reached out to touch it, but Samantha closed her fist and jerked her arm away.

"Uh-uh, it's not for free." Samantha wagged her index finger with a smirk.

"Why not?"

"Because this purple crystal is super rare. Don't believe me? Feel free to touch it." Samantha opened her fist and allowed Michelle to grab the crystal and rub it between her fingers.

"Doesn't feel anything like plastic to me." Michelle deduced from the coarse textures of the crystal. "Where did you get this from?"

"From a faraway planet," Samantha said with a large smile.

"What's the price?"

"$50, and it's all yours."

"Uh...I don't have that much money." Michelle turned her shorts pockets inside out.

"Don't worry, just pay me after our time here is over."

"And just how far away is this planet of yours?" Grandmum barged in on her attempt to make a sale.

"Uh..." Samantha hesitated to give an answer.

"If you're standing right on it, you shouldn't charge that much for that little trinket of yours," Grandmum told her.

"But-" Samantha tried to speak up.

"Remember what the Good Book says, 'Wealth obtained by fraud will dwindle, but whoever earns it through labor will multiply it'," Grandmum quoted.

"I think that means...uh..." Samantha pondered for a second or two, "I give up, what does that mean?"

"Glad you asked, poppet. It means that whatever money you obtained through dishonest means, such as peddling bogus cures on the street or selling something for much more than it is actually worth, will slip right through your fingers one way or another. On the other hand, money you have earned by doing honest hard work, like raking up the leaves in the autumn or washing the dishes, will slowly accumulate if you save it up," Grandmum explained.

"But I won't make a lot of money if I do any of that," Samantha protested.

"All the better to save it more often, crumpet," Grandmum said with a smile. The telephone chose this moment in time to ring.

"I'll get it!" Grandmum called out as she made her way to answer the phone. Samantha turned to face Michelle.

"So...is your necklace still for sale?" Michelle asked.

"I...still have to think about that," Samantha answered. She tossed the necklace aside. It collided with the Rockhopper model, and the ship began to hover a few inches above Michelle and Samantha. The lid of the model opened up to reveal Captain Zidgel standing with his chest protruding outwards.

"Michelle and Samantha Conrad, we need your help!" he announced.

"But what about Jason? Isn't he coming with us?" Michelle asked.

"Nope." He shook his head. That answer caught Jason’s attention, who was playing a video game. He turned to Zidgel and put his video game controller down.

"Why am I not coming?" he asked.

"Because not every mission requires the help of all three of you," Zidgel replied.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Remember when we only brought one of you at a time for certain missions?" Zidgel asked, "Think of this time as a mission that only needs two of you instead of just one." Jason was about to respond when Zidgel spoke up yet again.

"Not to worry, Jason," he reassured him, "there will be other opportunities for you." Jason resumed his video game playing after he had heard what Zidgel told him. Fidgel pulled out the galeezel and fired it at Samantha. The galeezel pulled her into the Rockhopper. He repeated the procedure with Michelle. Samantha deactivated her human guise the instant she was brought aboard. Midgel began to steer the ship up the chimney and into the vast space of the cosmos.

* * *

"Captain's blog, stardate insert-random-numbers here, we are taking Michelle and Samantha with us on a penguinitarian mission to help the unfortunate citizens of the 29th Federation colony who are recovering from a devastating disaster that had just ravaged the hard work of their ancestors," Zidgel verbally filed his latest captain's blog.

"How are we going to help these people?" Samantha asked.

"We'll stop at a space station to pick up the supplies that we'll deliver to the colony," Oceranne filled in, "We'll then travel to the colony, drop off the supplies, and maybe even volunteer in the rebuilding process."

"And what was this disaster?" Michelle piped in.

"We ...weren't given exact information on that," Zidgel answered, "Probably had something to do with some sort of hurricane, the transmission was pretty damaged."

Oceranne turned a knob at her station. She listened in on whatever was entering her ear. She stopped turning the knob when the white noise turned into something comprehensible.

"Captain, someone's hailing us," she said.

"Put them on screen, Lieutenant," Zidgel ordered.

"I can't, sir, it's audio, only," Oceranne responded.

"Well, give us all something to look at, so we won't be bored."

Oceranne rolled her eyes and pushed a yellow button. A picture of her wearing sunglasses, holding a drink in her right hand, and surrounded by lizards with their arms stretched out to her, as if they were performing a ritual of worship, appeared on the viewscreen. Close to the middle, there was a caption that read, "What? I just sang The Arms of the Emperor in its original Desaro."

"Lasdran to Federation ship, I am in dire need of assistance," a male voice broke through the radio static.

"What kind of assistance?" Zidgel asked.

"Allow my ship to dock with yours in order for me to come aboard, and I'll explain further," the voice answered.

"Well then, welcome aboard," Zidgel responded. He turned to Oceranne and swept his right hand horizontally to the right. Oceranne took the hint and pushed a dark brown button to cut the transmission.

"Captain, are you sure we should allow him to come aboard?" Midgel asked.

"Of course we should! It's not like he'll knock us all unconscious and steal the Rockhopper or anything like that!"

"Are you speaking from experience, Captain?" Oceranne tilted her head to the right.

"What? No! No, I'm not! Why would you think that?" Zidgel responded.

"Whatever you say, Captain." Oceranne raised her hands up in defense.

"Lasdran, Midgel, prepare ships for docking!" Zidgel gave his order.

"Aye, Captain!" Lasdran and Midgel both responded.

* * *

The door leading to where the ships docked together opened up. From it, a Galápagos penguin sporting a low hanging ponytail, a blue coat over a teal shirt, and khaki trousers entered. With him, he brought a small blue rolling suitcase.

"My, my, this is quite a ship you have here," Lasdran whistled, "Its slightly compacted exterior and small yet comfortable interior complement each other quite excellently. Fiordland-class ship, I presume?" The Rockhopper crew looked at each other, expecting at least one of them to give an answer.

"Rockhopper-class, actually," Midgel spoke up.

"Of course! I did notice that this ship's interior is slightly larger than is expected for these kinds of ships," Lasdran replied.

"You did come here for more than just telling us all how awesome you find my ship, right?" Zidgel asked.

"Although I do find your ship to be an excellent example of engineering, my good captain, there is a little something that I require your help to accomplish," Lasdran answered.

"Ah, your words are music to these ears." Zidgel smiled. Oceranne cleared her throat. “Ahem, what can we help you with?”

“ Well, you can start with browsing through my various wares.” Lasdran opened up his coat to display all the various knick-knacks he had on him.

“ This is the dire assistance you needed from us?” Zidgel asked.

“ Well…” Lasdran said, “I might have been embellishing a little when I said I was in dire need of assistance.”

“ If needing to sell something was a dire emergency,” Zidgel said, “nearly every single shop I bought my hair care products from would have non-stop dire emergencies.”

“ Oh, good one, Captain.” Lasdran laughed. None of the other Rockhopper crew members joined in on the laughter.

“Ahem.” Lasdran cleared his throat, “What might you be interested in, Captain?”

"Hmm..." Zidgel browsed through Lasdran's wares in his coat, "speaking of hair care products, I did notice I was running low on my favorite feather fluffing conditioner."

"Conditioner, you say?" Lasdran said, "I believe I may have just the product for you!" He dug around in his coat and pulled out a bottle of conditioner with a picture of a satisfied penguin with their head feathers fluffed up.

"How much, Lasdran, how much?" Zidgel's eyes lit up upon seeing the bottle of conditioner.

"It can be yours for the small, small price of--" Lasdran paused for dramatic effect, "160 Federation debits."

"160 Federation debits? Isn’t that a little--?"

“A little less expensive than its usual price?”

“Well…” Zidgel said.

“It’s got oils extracted from lavender that’s been seeped in Matan hot spring water for eight years!” Lasdran said in a sing-song voice.

“You’ve got yourself a deal!” Zidgel said. He transferred the funds to Lasdran, who handed the bottle of conditioner to him.

"And how about you, whatever your rank is? Might I interest you in some of my personal wares?" Lasdran asked Midgel.

"First Officer, but I also accept either 'Pilot' or 'Engineer', and no thanks."

"Very well then," Lasdran said, "A disappointment really, since I'm sure someone will want this coveted collector’s edition figurine of a certain popular time traveling hero."

"Wait, why didn't you say so?" Midgel asked.

“It can be all yours for a mere 5,000 Federation debits.”

“Deal!” Midgel transferred his debits to Lasdran.

“Now, who here is in dire need of some state-of-the-art glow-in-the-dark stalagmites?”

* * *

Long after Lasdran make his departure from the Rockhopper, it continued on its destination to that space station.

"That Lasdran's a nice fella," Zidgel said, "selling me that high quality conditioner to make my hair extra fluffy."

"I think this is the first time I've seen Aleera smile," Fidgel added, "I guess glow-in-the-dark stalagmites are enough to warm that dry ice block she has for a heart."

"And if she were within earshot, that dry ice block would've frozen right back up," Oceranne said, "Luckily, I've got my heated salt lamp to get it melting again."

"Is that salt lamp edible, Oceranne?" Kevin asked.

"Sorry, Kevin, it's not," Oceranne answered, "how are you enjoying your little portable logic puzzle?"

"Fun," Kevin replied, "A little hard, but fun."

"Well, girls, how do you like what I bought for you?" Fidgel asked.

"I love it! Thanks, Fidgel!" Michelle twirled around in a frilly pink lei.

"Yeah, thanks!" Samantha said, "I never had a real Earth paddleball before!"

Zidgel turned in his captain’s chair and pressed a button on its left arm.

“Captain’s blog, supplemental,” he said, “a friendly salesman by the name of Lasdran stopped by and sold us some expensive souvenirs. Although his prices were higher than the typical expensive souvenir, my crew and I are too satisfied with what we bought to complain about it! A self-reminder to thank that salesman the next time we run into him.”

* * *

“If I find that spineless salesman again, I am going to stab his eyeballs out with these stupid staining fade-in-the-dark stalactites!” Aleera stormed into the Rockhopper's bridge, shaking the products she bought from Lasdran in her hands.

"As opposed to stupid staining fade-in-the-dark stalagmites?" Midgel asked.

"He ripped me off is what he did!" Aleera yelled, “I can’t believe I paid 200 Federation debits for something I could’ve bought for 99% cheaper at those cheap gas station stores!”

“I’m surprised it’s not our captain who’s complaining to me,” Midgel said. Right when he said that, Zidgel stormed into the bridge, his pompadour a clumpy mess.

“Midgel! Set a course for that scamming salesman’s shootable ship!” he ordered.

“What’s wrong, Captain? Was the lavender seeped for seven years, not eight?” Midgel asked.

“Easy for you to say! You didn’t just waste 200 Federation debits on something that does nothing but mess up your hair!” Zidgel snapped back, “…well? What are you waiting for?!”

“First off, Captain, I have no idea where Lasdran’s heading, and second, even if I did know where he’s gone, what are you going to do when you confront him?”

“Demand a refund!”

“Good luck with that. Something tells me that Lasdran’s not the kind of person who’d be willing to give out refunds.”

“He’d better be!” Samantha stormed into the bridge, “my paddleball’s already broken!” She threw the paddle and the ball onto the ground.

“I don’t think throwing it on the ground’s gonna put it back together.” Midgel adjusted his pilot’s mirror to face Samantha.

“Do all Earth paddleballs break after only being used once?!”

“Listen, I know you three are upset,” Midgel said, “but our main mission isn’t to confront someone who sold you products you aren’t satisfied with.”

“It is now!” Zidgel responded, “Midgel, find that con artist’s ship immediately!”

“Captain, what do you think Admiral Strap would say if we reported that we changed course from helping a Federation colony to chasing some guy whose only crime is overcharging on a faulty product?” Midgel asked.

“Ugh, fine. I don’t want him grounding my ship…again,” Zidgel said, “Continue on to Matan Space Station.”

* * *

The Rockhopper approached a space station orbiting a planet with rings surrounding it.

“Coming up on Matan Space Station, prepare for docking!” Midgel announced. The rest of the Rockhopper crew buckled up at their respective stations, Fidgel, Michelle, and Samantha in their green inflatable seats, Oceranne wrapped the seat belt around her and her station.

As the Rockhopper came closer and closer to the space station, a fat female lizard looked out a window. Her eyes widened a little when she saw the Rockhopper.

“Captain, is the ship approaching the station the ship that I think it is?” she asked.

“If you think that ship is the Rockhopper, then it is the ship that you think it is,” the space station’s captain answered, “Sound the alarm and begin all preparations and precautions.”

“Right away.” The lizard pressed a red button and pulled a portable speaker closer to her. “The Rockhopper is preparing to dock. This is not a drill, I repeat, this is not a drill. Evacuate all nonessential personnel from the vicinity of Docking Station 13.”

As the alarm blared off throughout the space station, many of its crew members got to work preparing for Midgel. Some of them led the civilians as far away from the surrounding areas of Docking Station 13. Others modified the space station’s shields so that the docking station and its surroundings could withstand a crash better.

Midgel pressed a button that activated pillows to cover the entire front of the Rockhopper except for where the exit was. He slowed the Rockhopper down to a complete stop as he approached the docking station. The Rockhopper came to a complete stop by crashing into the docking station. The ship got through the docking mostly undamaged. The same couldn’t be said for the docking station.

“That was much better than last time you docked the Rockhopper!” Zidgel said, “Let’s hope Matan Space Station’s captain doesn’t take a page out of Spheniscid Space Station’s captain and punch you.”

* * *

The Rockhopper crew split into three teams aboard Matan Space Station. The first team, consisting of Zidgel, Aleera, and Samantha headed off to the trading hub. The second team, consisting of Midgel, Michelle, and Kevin, made their way to where the building materials were being stored. And the third team, consisting of Fidgel and Oceranne, walked to the food center.

“I don’t get it,” Oceranne said, “why are Zidgel, Aleera, and Samantha the only ones who are angry with what they bought?”

“Well, technically, I paid for what Michelle and Samantha wanted,” Fidgel answered, “but to answer your question, perhaps the rest of us did pay for what we bought, and those three were the unfortunate ones who had to pay high prices for low quality products.”

“I’m not so sure,” Oceranne replied, “maybe I should examine my new heated salt lamp more closely.”

* * *

“I don’t get it, Midgel,” Michelle said, “if Lasdran’s really the con artist my cousin, the captain, and the doctor--not Fidgel--say he is, why aren’t we complaining about what Lasdran sold us?”

“I don’t know,” Midgel answered as he browsed through the various building materials, “Maybe because we’re the lucky blokes who didn’t pay high prices for products that’ll fall apart after being used only once.”

“I guess,” Michelle replied, “I just hope my new lei doesn’t break.”

“My logic puzzles are starting to get a little easier,” Kevin added.

“Is that good or bad?” Michelle asked.

“Bad.” Kevin frowned.

* * *

Zidgel, Aleera, and Samantha looked around the trading hub of Matan Space Station.

“Hmm, I think I can trade away some of my unused test tubes for those sets of clothes,” Aleera said to herself.

“Come on, come on, who here looks like they’d want a bottle of conditioner that does nothing but mess up hairstyles,” Zidgel said to himself.

Aleera was about to approach the stall with the set of clothes when Samantha pulled at her arm.

“What is it?” she asked.

“Look who’s at the stall!” Samantha pointed toward a stall that looked like it was set up recently. At that stall was Lasdran, peddling his products to anybody who so much as looked in the vicinity of his stall.

“You!” Aleera stomped toward Lasdran. Lasdran hastily put his wares back in his stall.

“Excuse me, but it appears I have a potential angry customer to deal with,” Lasdran told one of his customers. He turned to face Aleera. “Hello, doctor, how may I help you?”

“Don’t you act all polite with me, Lasdran!” Aleera yelled, “Not after you ripped me off!”

“My good doctor,” Lasdran said, “since when have I ever ripped anyone off?”

“When my paddleball broke!” Samantha showed her paddle and her ball to Lasdran.

“Young lady, what right have you to complain?” Lasdran asked, “it was that science officer who bought that paddleball, not you.”

“Lasdran!” Zidgel shouted as he stomped over to Lasdran’s stall, “where’s my refund?!”

“Captain!” Lasdran said, “this isn’t about that conditioner, is it? If it is, I’m afraid I misspoke last time. It turns out, that lavender was seeped for seven years, not eight.”

“I don’t care if it was seeped for seven centuries!” Zidgel shook his conditioner bottle at Lasdran. “it ruined my do!”

“Your pompadour’s looking fine to me.”

“That’s only because I spent six hours trying to fix it!”

“I’m sorry to hear that, Captain, but I’m afraid I can’t provide any refunds for you or those doctors.”

“I don’t believe you!”

“Believe me, if I could provide a refund, I would. But as of now, I don’t have enough money on hand.” Lasdran showed Zidgel a tablet that displayed the amount of money he had. “But I can provide a suitable replacement for your products.”

“How do I know my do won’t get ruined any further by this replacement conditioner?!”

“If my word isn’t enough for you, I will provide a full refund for the three of you if you end up unsatisfied with these replacements.”

“You’d better if that’s the case,” Zidgel said. Lasdran dug around at his stall and grabbed another bottle of conditioner, some glow-in-the-dark stalagmites, and a paddleball. He handed them to Zidgel, Aleera, and Samantha.

“Will this paddleball break?” Samantha asked.

“If it does, a full refund will be provided,” Lasdran answered.

Zidgel, Aleera, and Samantha continued to browse through the trading hub, and Lasdran continued his peddling to the space station’s inhabitants.

“If you buy from me, not only will you be 100% satisfied with whatever you get, but you will also be supporting the rebuilding of the 29th Federation colony,” he said. Zidgel stopped and head back to Lasdran’s stall.

“What do you mean by that?” he asked.

“What I mean by what I said, my good Captain, is that whoever buys from me will be supporting me distributing anything that the 29th Federation colony needs to rebuild,” Lasdran answered, “and before you ask, I am not making any of the colonists pay exuberant prices for products that’ll fall apart after only one use.”

“I’ll be the judge of that,” Zidgel said.

“Really, Captain, you don’t have anything better to do than scrutinize salesmen who are only trying to make an honest living?” Lasdran asked.

“As of this moment, I’m on a mission to help the 29th Federation colony,” Zidgel answered, “But once I’m through with that, I’ll get my eye on you.”

* * *

The Rockhopper departed from the space station, loaded with all the supplies it needed, and continued on its course to the 29th Federation colony.

“So, Captain, did you get your refund?” Midgel asked.

“Nope,” Zidgel answered, “But I did get a new bottle of conditioner.”

“Let me guess, this conditioner caused your do to fall off.”

“I…haven’t used it yet, so I don’t know. But if it does, I’ll get that refund one way or another!”

“Need I remind you of our actual mission, Captain?”

“About that…” Zidgel said, “good news for us! It turns out that Lasdran’s heading off to the same planet we are!”

“Wait, why is he going there?” Oceranne asked.

“Something about selling his stuff to the colonists there,” Zidgel answered.

“Captain, something tells me that Lasdran is exploiting the aftermath of the disaster for monetary gain,” Oceranne said.

“That doesn’t sound good, Lieutenant, whatever that means.”

“She’s saying that Lasdran is using the destruction to make money for himself,” Fidgel explained.

“Right,” Zidgel said, “if that is what you said, Lieutenant, then you’re preaching to the choir.”

“Then you agree that everything that we bought from Lasdran should be inspected more closely?” Oceranne asked.

“Sure, why not?” Zidgel answered.

“Captain, permission to join Oceranne in her little investigation?” Fidgel asked.

“Granted,” Zidgel answered, “Everyone, hand everything that you bought from Lasdran over to Fidgel and Oceranne! We’ve got a potential con artist to catch!”

* * *

In a dimly light room, Oceranne held up Midgel’s collector’s edition figurine. She spun the figurine around in her hand.

“Have you found anything, Lieutenant?” Fidgel asked.

“Nothing out of the ordinary,” Oceranne answered, “wait a minute…Doctor, do we have any paint remover?”

“Right here.” Fidgel handed the paint remover to Oceranne. She poured a few drops onto the base of the figurine where the serial number was printed. She used a piece of tissue paper to wipe away the paint on the serial number. The paint remover revealed a different serial number.

“Aha!” Oceranne exclaimed.

“What did you find?” Fidgel asked.

“This!” Oceranne showed the figurine’s real serial number to Fidgel.

“…What am I supposed to be looking at?”

“The serial number!”

“What about it?”

“At first, I couldn’t find anything suspect, but when I noticed that there seemed to be another serial number printed under it, I knew something was up. So I wiped away the paint, revealing the figurine’s real serial number!”

“Which means…”

“Which means this figurine isn’t a collector’s edition! It’s a cheap knockoff that could be bought for five hundred times cheaper!”

“Oh, goodness!” Fidgel exclaimed, “Midgel isn’t going to like hearing about this.”

“Hand me Samantha’s paddleball,” Oceranne said, “I believe I’ve got some more paint to wipe off.”

* * *

“Well, Doctor, Lieutenant, any updates on all the stuff we bought from Lasdran?” Zidgel sat at an elliptical table.

“Plenty!” Oceranne answered as she placed all of the objects on the table, “And none of you are going to like what I’m going to say.”

“Out with it, then,” Zidgel said.

“Michelle, Aleera, please tell you didn’t touch that lei and those glow-in-the-dark stalagmites,” Fidgel said.

“Is that why I’ve got this infernal rash on my hands?!” Aleera scratched her hands.

“Wait, that lei made my neck all itchy?” Michelle asked as she scratched her neck.

“Yes to both questions, Michelle and Doctor,” Oceranne answered, “Fortunately, neither the glow-in-the-dark liquid nor the lei flowers are deadly enough to kill either of you. The same can’t be said for the paint covering Samantha’s paddleball.”

“Oh no! Am I going to die, Lieutenant?!” Samantha exclaimed.

“Don’t worry, Samantha,” Fidgel answered, “the mercery paint’s only poisonous if you consume it.”

“Mercury?!”

“That’s not all,” Oceranne added, “It turns out that this paddleball was made on Mata, not Earth.”

“Great!” Samantha said, “now I’m one real Earth paddleball short no thanks to Lasdran!”

“Anything else we need to know?” Zidgel asked, “Specifically about my conditioner?”

“I examined its ingredients closely,” Fidgel answered, “and it turns out, this conditioner would cause your do to fall off if you used it.”

“Of all the--!” Zidgel exclaimed.

“Please tell me we’re going to confront that spineless salesman, Captain!” Aleera said.

“Oh, we are!” Zidgel replied, “I don’t care if Admiral Strap grounds my ship for a hundred years!” He grabbed his communicator and yelled into it. “Midgel! You won’t have to change course since Lasdran’s heading off to the same place we are! All you have to do is land in the same place that spineless salesman is at!”

“Captain, have you forgotten about our main mission?” Midgel replied.

“That can wait! We have to stop someone selling dangerous products!” Zidgel said.

“What could Lasdran be selling that’s so dangerous?”

“Would you change your mind if I told you your little collector’s edition figurine is a fake?”

“That little—I’m right on it, Captain!”

* * *

At his stall, Lasdran peddled his products to any colonist who so much as looked in his direction.

“And these building materials are priced slightly high than usual because whatever you build with these will last longer,” he said, “And all this food has to be expensive because just one bite of it will satisfy your hunger for days.”

“Hmm, it seems to me that you’re just exploiting the aftermath of the flood to make a quick buck,” one of the colonists said.

“Oh, nonsense,” Lasdran replied, “if I wanted to do that, I would charge hundreds, if not thousands, of Federation debits for my products.”

“Well…” the colonist said, “I guess it wouldn’t hurt to buy whatever you’ve got.” They were about to transfer their Federation debits to Lasdran when Zidgel yelled out and stomped off to Lasdran’s stall.

“Lasdran! You’d better not be poisoning those colonists!”

“Captain, whatever gave you that idea?” Lasdran asked.

“When you sold us that mercury paint coated paddleball that wasn’t even made on Earth to begin with!” Samantha yelled.

“Mercury paint? Why would I ever sell anything covered with mercury paint?”

“You tell us!” Zidgel exclaimed.

“Lasdran! Explain to me why you sold me this knock-off to me for 5,000 Federation debits when it’s not even worth 5!” Midgel shouted.

“What was those stupid staining fade-in-the-dark stalactites?!”

“How poisonous were those lei flowers?!”

“How did my salt lamp get set on fire?!"

“Did you plagiarize those logic puzzles?”

“Is it true that you’re trying to poison us?”

“Everyone! Everyone! Please! I can explain!” Lasdran held his hands up in defense.

“What’s there to explain?! Isn’t it obvious that you’re trying to scam everyone here?!” Zidgel exclaimed.

“Of course not!” Lasdran replied, “I’m just trying to make an honest living! And if you’re asking about your refunds, I cannot provide them! I don’t have any money on me!”

“Well, where is it, then?!” Zidgel asked.

“I invested most of my earnings!” Lasdran answered. One of the colonists saw Lasdran’s tablet, picked it up, and took a look at it.

“Hey, where did you get all of this money?” they asked. The instant they said that, Lasdran’s face started to turn pale. Or at least, it would’ve turn pale if not for the black and white feathers covering his face.

“Uh…uh…” Lasdran gulped. “Hey, is that David Bowie?!” He pointed off to a distance. The Rockhopper crew and the colonists looked in that direction, but when they saw no glittered androgenous British rock star, they turned back to see that Lasdran was gone from his stall.

“Where did he go?” Zidgel asked.

“There he is!” Another colonist pointed to where Lasdran was running off. “Get him!” The Rockhopper crew and some of the colonists gave chase to Lasdran. Lasdran attempted to get away from his angry customers by running through one of the damaged buildings and hiding behind one of its walls. The Rockhopper crew and the colonists ran past the damaged building.

“Whew! That was a close one,” Lasdran said to himself, “I thought I was done for.” He stepped away from the wall, accidentally kicking some pebbles in the process. This sound alerted the Rockhopper crew and the colonists to his location.

“Uh-oh, spoke too soon,” Lasdran said as he made a run for it. He ran until he turned right into an alleyway. He continued running until he came across a wall.

“Ugh! Why do these alleyways always have dead ends?!” he said to himself. He backed himself up against the wall and faced everyone who was chasing him.

“Game over, Lasdran!” Zidgel yelled, “You have nowhere to run!”

“Alright, I give up! You got me!” Lasdran dropped down to his knees and sobbed. “You can have your full refunds! Just please don’t beat me up!”

“Wait, what made you think we were going to beat you up?” Zidgel asked.

“When you started chasing me?” Lasdran sniffled.

“We are only chasing you because you ran away,” Midgel spoke up.

“Which you chose to do rather than face up to the consequences of your actions,” Fidgel added.

“Oh! I’m ruined! Ruined!” Lasdran continued to sob.

“You’re only ruined because ‘Wealth obtained by fraud will dwindle’,” Samantha told him.

“But whoever earns it through labor will multiply it,” Michelle finished Samantha’s sentence.

“Which means…” Lasdran said.

“It means that doing things like selling me a fake Earth paddleball will only make the money you made drain away,” Samantha said.

“But if you work honestly for that money, you’ll slowly get richer,” Michelle added.

“How fortunate I am to live in place where me getting rich through hard work is an actual possibility as opposed to just being propaganda peddled by people who are insufferably wealthy and never had to work a single day in their entire lives.” Lasdran said.

“What?” Michelle asked.

“It’ll take too long to explain to someone your age,” Lasdran replied, “Oh, Captain, I am ready for my inevitable imprisonment!”

“Uh, just a minute, Lasdran,” Zidgel said. He turned to his crew, “I think it’s time we called for a huddle.” He and the rest of the Rockhopper crew huddled around in a circle.

“What should be done about this con artist?” he asked.

“He better provide those refunds to us!” Aleera spoke up.

“But what do we do about him after he does provide the refunds?” Midgel asked.

“I got an idea!” Samantha spoke up.

“What is it?” Oceranne asked.

“Why don’t we have Lasdran help the colonists fix their planet?” Samantha suggested, “After all, that will give him a chance to make his wealth grow through honest work.”

“Excellent suggestion, cadet,” Zidgel said. He broke away from the huddle and approached Lasdran. “Lasdran, my crew and I have decided what must be done about you.”

“I am to be thrown in prison, right?” Lasdran asked.

“No, you are to work with these colonists in rebuilding their home,” Zidgel answered.

“Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you!” Lasdran exclaimed, “And I’ll even provide all the refunds to everyone who isn’t satisfied with their purchase! I just need my tablet!”

* * *

“Captain’s blog, stardate something something, a bunch of numbers.” Zidgel sat in his chair as he filed his post-mission captain’s blog. “Our penguinitarian mission was a success, and as a little bonus, my crew and I got our full refunds from that con artist! Hopefully, his time spent rebuilding the 29th Federation colony will teach him the importance of not scamming anybody out of their money.”

“As opposed to only giving him new ideas on how to pull fast scams?” Aleera asked.

“Hey, there’s a 50-50 chance we’ll never have to deal with him again,” Zidgel replied.

“But that also means there’s a 50-50 chance that we will see him again,” Oceranne spoke up.

“Can’t you let us have the satisfaction of having successfully completed another mission without speculating on whether or not we’ll meet people like Lasdran again?” Zidgel asked. Michelle and Samantha zoned out the following argument that ensued as Midgel piloted the Rockhopper back to Earth.

* * *

Samantha fidgeted around with the purple crystal in her hands.

“Samantha, is your necklace still for sale?” Michelle interrupted her crystal fidgeting.

“No, not anymore,” Samantha answered.

“That crystal’s not as rare as you said it was, is it?” Michelle asked.

“No, it’s not,” Samantha replied, “I lied about that because I thought I could get a better deal that way. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t worry, I didn’t actually lose any money,” Michelle said.

“And you won’t have to spend any money since I’m offering this for free.” Samantha held out the crystal, “Do you still want it?”

“No thanks,” Michelle answered, “I already got a crystal like that.”

“Glad to hear you took my lesson to heart, Samantha,” Grandmum spoke up.

“I did, Grandmum,” Samantha said, “now I know that 'Wealth obtained by fraud will dwindle, but whoever earns it through labor will multiply it'.”

“And you even apologized without any prompting from me,” Grandmum replied.

“Is that crystal actually from a faraway planet?” Michelle asked after Grandmum left the room.

“Yes,” Samantha answered, “I won it when playing ring toss at the Saturn Carnival on Spheniscidae.”

“Se-phe-cid…?” Michelle struggled to pronounce the last name Samantha said.

“Spheniscidae,” Samantha said, “it’s the planet that the penguins are from.”

“Hey, guys,” Jason said as he entered the room, “What kind of mission did the penguins take you on?”

“Well,” Michelle began to speak.

* * *

Night fell outside of the cottage. Within it, Jason, Michelle, and Samantha kneeled down next to their beds.

“Dear God,” Jason, Michelle, and Samantha all started to pray.

“Thank you for the time I have at Grandmum’s cottage, even though I didn’t get to go on any space adventures this time,” Jason said.

“And thank you for a cousin who won’t try to scam me,” Michelle said.

“Thank you for teaching me the importance of not scamming anybody out of their money,” Samantha said.

“Amen,” Jason, Michelle, and Samantha all said. Samantha pulled out a tablet and pressed the “contact” button.

"Who do you wish to contact?" The text read. Samantha typed in her father's name.

"Full visual or audio only?" Samantha chose the full visual option.

“Hello, Samantha,” a Gentoo penguin wearing a green shirt said, "Are you enjoying your time at your grandmother's cottage?"

"I am now," Samantha answered.

“Good,” her father replied, “I was starting to get worried that Earth was making you homesick.”

“I am feeling a little homesick, Dad,” Samantha said, “but talking with you is starting to make me feel a little better.”

“Listen, I can’t talk for very much longer,” her father told her, “but whenever that homesick feeling comes back, you let me know so I can make you feel more at home.”

“Bye,” Samantha said. She put away her tablet and went to sleep.


End file.
